Centennial Makes Its Move Into First

Darius Sanders scored 18 points and Gabriel Pruitt had 17 for Compton Centennial, which moved into sole possession of first place in the Ocean League boys’ basketball race with a 55-44 victory Friday over host El Segundo.

Pruitt scored 10 points in the fourth quarter, including consecutive three-point baskets that gave the Apaches a 53-42 lead with 2:15 to play.

“I was feeling it, so the coach went with that and ran plays to get me the ball,” said Pruitt, a sophomore point guard. “I was trying to create things off the dribble, and when I couldn’t, my teammates set good screens to get me open looks.”

Centennial (17-0, 7-0), ranked No. 3 by The Times, led 39-38 after three quarters.

Dashawn Strong led the Eagles (17-3, 6-1) with 22 points. He scored all 10 of El Segundo’s points in the third quarter, but was held scoreless in the fourth.

Defending league champ El Segundo, ranked No. 16, led 14-11 after one quarter. Jeramie Hopson finished with 14 points, including a shot at the buzzer to tie the score, 28-28, at halftime.

Steve Galluzzo

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In other boys’ basketball games:

Newhall Hart 56, Canyon Country Canon 53--Adam Rich, a 6-foot-4 sophomore forward, scored 18 points and had 17 rebounds to lead the Indians to their 12th consecutive victory in a Foothill League game at Hart.

Rich, who quit football to concentrate on basketball, made two free throws with 16 seconds left to give Hart (17-3, 4-0) a three-point lead. Canyon (14-6, 2-2) twice got off three-point shots in the final 16 seconds, but the last one by Richard Ratcliff missed with one second to play.

Chad Eichten scored 23 points and Jeremy Haggerty had 15 for Canyon.

Eric Sondheimer

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Westchester 93, Washington, D.C., Dunbar 51--Brandon Heath had 17 points and Keith Everage had 16 to lead Westchester (17-1, 6-0), The Times’ top-ranked team, in a first-round game of the four-team McDonald’s Classic in Erie, Pa. Dunbar fell to 9-7.

Sylmar 86, Reseda 82--Jeff Morris scored 22 of his 26 points in the second half and five Sylmar players combined to make 13 of 14 free throws in overtime to help the Spartans (12-5, 4-0) move into first place in the Valley Mission League with the victory. Reseda (10-4, 3-1) was led by Steve Lone’s 17 points.

In wrestling:

Five Counties tournament: Bakersfield High put itself in position to run away with the tournament at Fountain Valley High by advancing nine wrestlers to today’s championship quarterfinals.

In the individual competition, Tony Martinez of Arroyo Grande had the upset of the day, defeating top-seeded David Roberts of Clovis West in the second round of the 135-pound division, 13-8. Martinez advanced to today’s quarterfinals with a 17-1 technical fall against Fountain Valley’s Chris Fenton.

Steve Saric of Temecula Valley scored an upset in the 103-pound class, defeating second-seeded Angel Wong of Santa Fe Springs Santa Fe with an unusual pin midway through the second round. Wong was winning the match but passed out after Saric put him in a headlock. Saric advanced to the quarterfinals with a second-round pin of Neil Olson of San Diego Mt. Carmel.

Clovis Buchanan advanced six to the quarterfinals. Clovis had five advance and Poway, Rosemead, North Torrance and Santa Ana Calvary Chapel had four each.

Dan Arritt